Most of us are born with two eyes that coordinate with each other to provide an accurate picture of the world. One affliction that interferes with quality of vision is called strabismus, wherein the eyes do not align properly. An extreme example of strabismus is crossed eyes, which cause double vision.

Nearly all of us have had occasion to cross our eyes on purpose in an expression of jest. Involuntary double vision, however, is no joke for those who have to live with it.  

Thankfully, medical science has developed ways to correct most cases of strabismus. It was not always so, however. For most of human history, those beset with double vision had to rely on the ability of the human brain to compensate for dysfunctional eyes.

One way the brain compensates for double vision is by ignoring the input of the deviated eye, but at the cost of depth perception. The result is one form of distortion unconsciously exchanged for another. Given the state of the world at this time, it would be accurate to aver that nearly all of us are vulnerable to (if not clearly burdened with) a metaphorical form strabismus. It’s also fair to say that the times are being reflected in the astrology.

The sheer volume of information coming at you is enough to cross your eyes all by itself. Astrology’s corollary to information (and your mind, among other things) is fast-moving Mercury.

Then, factor in the probability that a large volume of data you receive is intentionally slanted in spite of any claim to be (for example) “fair and balanced.” Finally, layer on the studied and tested manipulative psychology employed by the political, entertainment and advertising industries, and it’s a wonder you can function as well as you do.

One way you and most of the rest of us remain functional in the midst of media onslaught is to be selective about exposure to information. Shutting out, avoiding and otherwise ignoring that which conflicts with or distresses your point of view, however, has its own problems. Even new evidence, when admitted, is commonly interpreted to confirm what you already believe (a tendency known as ‘confirmation bias’).

Confirmation bias is an occupational hazard for astrologers. In an effort to overcome personal prejudice, astrologers often defer to and rely on traditional forms of interpretation. Even then, astrology can at times present a confusing picture, which, ironically, is often an accurate representation of what’s actually going on.

One could make a case for now being one of those times. Tellingly, one of the planets most emblematic of these times is Neptune in the sign it rules — Pisces.

Neptune is not to be underestimated. As the great Robert Hand put it, Neptune correlates with what is “confusing and unclear” at least as often as it corresponds to “extremely beautiful and ideal influences.” Up until about five years ago, when Neptune entered Pisces for the first time in a century and a half, nobody (nor their parents, nor even their grandparents) had any experience of living through an era of Neptune implicitly being amplified in Pisces.

Indeed, the world is still influenced by both the distorted thinking (Confederate flag and such) and inspiration (Thoreau and his contemporaries) which originated the last time Neptune passed through Pisces — basically from 1849 to 1862. Additionally, Neptune, along with complex and nuanced Chiron, is currently retrograde in Pisces, symbolically adding to the potential for confusion.

Further contributing to the potential for confusion is Saturn, astrology’s lord of order. Saturn is in a transitional year, spending most of 2015 slowly oscillating over the cusp separating two very different signs: Scorpio and Sagittarius. Even though Saturn is no longer retrograde, it is still in the same degree of Scorpio it occupied on July 4, indicative of little (if any) progress in bringing any semblance of order to your life or the world as a whole.

Finally, Uranus (which a normally circumspect Robert Hand recently referred to as “a crazy planet”) is also retrograde in Aries. At the same time, the ruler of Aries (Mars) is actually moving faster than Venus, which hardly ever happens.

Fortunately, just as medical science has its remedies for strabismus, astrology has its antidote for confusing times: patience. Everything in the sky and on the zodiac is constantly moving. As a result, no one state of affairs holds forever. And just as it is above, so it reliably is below.

In our current case, the dominant role of slow moving planets (Saturn, Uranus and Neptune especially) in fast-moving times implies that you need to be more patient than perhaps at any time in your life. The good news is that a light is visible at the end of our proverbial tunnel. Next month, Saturn will settle into Sagittarius for a long run of more than two years. After September, the eclipses of 2015 will be over, and by mid-October all the Mercury retrogrades for the year will be behind us.

Indeed, things might actually get a little boring later this year. Once you are able to see things more clearly, the stark nature of a less distorted reality might seem somehow less interesting. So, make the best of confusing times while you have them. Allow for your probable double vision to contribute to your creativity and stimulate your imagination while you still can, just so long as you are aware that seeing and believing are not what they used to be.

Offered In Service                   

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

You are living a reality I left years ago, it quite nearly killed me. In the long run, it will make you cry, make you crazy and old before your time.
— Stephen Stills, from “You Don’t Have To Cry”

You are not a machine. Even as much as a world regulated by clocks, calendars and quotas expects you (and even convinces you to expect) to be a robot, it’s never quite going to happen. That’s good.

Even the most regimented and disciplined people eventually realize that any prolonged attempt to live like a machine will damage the quality of life.

By the same token, as much as other people might want you to continue filling a particular role for them, part of you will (at least occasionally) want and need to be something else. That’s good too.

Part of being a happy and healthy human being means being changeable, sometimes to the point of appearing to be capricious or even erratic. It’s a good thing because the one constant in the world is change.

Hence, to survive (much less thrive) you need to love, support, nourish and encourage your ability to change with the world. For if you go the other way and resist or devalue the vagarious essence of your human nature, the changing world will often function to age and disillusion you prematurely. Beyond that, it’s also important to initiate change in the world — especially the changes you want or need to see.

Of all the things in the sky that correlate with an imperative to change and be changed, perhaps the Moon comes closest to expressing that particular and essential (if also exasperating) facet of human nature. As astrology would have it, today it is an appropriate time to consider lunar manifestations of change because several are about to happen — essentially at once.

Tomorrow, shortly after 10:53 am EDT (14:53:21 UTC) the emblematic Sun and Moon will come together in precisely the same degree of Leo even as the actual Sun and Moon move alongside each other in the sky. Such an event happens every four weeks or so, and is called a New Moon.

By convention, a New Moon is considered the beginning of a new lunar cycle of phases, sometimes called a lunation. On the day of a New Moon, the actual Moon is like a seed in the ground, hidden from view but full of potential. Then, much as with a seed’s germination, things begin to change.

On Saturday evening, the actual Moon will become visible again as a thin crescent of reflected light just above the western horizon shortly after sunset. Then, with each successive night the crescent will grow larger, and increase its separation from the Sun, culminating in the fruition of a Full Moon on Aug. 29. Following the Full Moon, the illuminated portion of the Moon will gradually decrease, rising later and later each night until it sows the seed of the next lunation to come.

Every New Moon is thus a new beginning of the most familiar lunar cycle. It is a cycle you can see in your life. You can see it in external germinations, fruitions and completions. You can also follow the cycle within, playing out in your emotions, intuitions, fascinations and enthusiasms. Yet, lunations are not the only form of lunar cycle.

Other lunar expressions in your life are to be located at essential points in the Moon’s orbit, most notably the lunar nodes and the mean lunar apogee (which is also referred to as Black Moon Lilith). Those points have cycles of their own. Interestingly, both of those cycles are also on the verge of change at this time.

To put it most simply, the lunar nodes are where eclipses take place. On the zodiac circle, they are represented by horseshoe-shaped glyphs perpetually opposed (always separated by 180 degrees). In actuality, the lunar nodes are the two points where the Moon’s orbit around Earth intersects with the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

As one would expect of something associated with the Moon, the location of the nodes on the zodiac and in the sky is in constant and seemingly impetuous oscillation. The net change over time is a retrograde motion, which causes the nodes to change signs every 18 months or so.

Again keeping it simple, the ascending (or ‘North’) lunar node now winding up its time in Libra has meaning for astrologers. Among other things, that meaning has to do with the unknown future and how you feel about it. Conversely, the descending (or ‘South’) lunar node now completing its time in Aries corresponds with the known past and your emotional attachments to it.

The lunar apogee is the point of the Moon’s orbit furthest from Earth. It also moves, and it also has a meaning for astrologers. Appropriately for something associated with the Moon, the motion of the lunar apogee appears to be capricious and erratic, even if it is ultimately understandable.

Also known as Black Moon Lilith (and once again keeping things simple), the lunar apogee point corresponds to human vagaries that can be either deprecated or appreciated. That depends on how you feel about the essential changeability of human nature, contrasted with the pressure to conform and be like a machine.

Black Moon Lilith changes signs in direct motion every nine months or so. Hence, about every year and a half, the lunar nodes and the mean lunar apogee change signs at about the same time. That time has come again, with implications that you will once again be faced with the choice of either embracing or resisting your whimsical and wild, yet essential and indispensable, ways.

The lunation beginning with tomorrow’s Leo New Moon is planting the seeds for those changes. Later this month, on Aug. 25, the mean lunar apogee will move from Virgo into Libra. Later this year, on Oct. 9 (or Oct. 10, depending on your time zone) the opposing mean lunar nodes will leave Libra and Aries behind and take their oscillating ways into Virgo and Pisces.

The last time such a turnover of lunar manifestations took place was in the early months of 2014, as winter yielded to spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Now as Northern Hemisphere summer slowly moves toward autumn, it’s happening again.

Thus, you might want to look back 18 months or so and consider what you did (or did not do) to either accommodate or resist change. You may want to consider what you have been through, and learned, since that time.

If there is anything to the interpretation of lunar manifestations presented here today, there should be something you can do. You should at least be able to begin with the Leo New Moon tomorrow by planting the seeds of a reality you will be living for the next year and a half or so. Ideally, it will be a reality where you won’t have to cry as much as in the past, or as often, precisely because you have become the change you want to see.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Sooner or later (usually in adolescence), most of us begin spending more time with unrelated people our own age than with family members. It’s an important period of learning interpersonal skills outside the family dynamic in order to individuate and define yourself among peers. Such skills, in turn, allow you to form friendships, partnerships and participate in community.

Some fundamental proficiency in expressing your thoughts is essential to interpersonal relationships. Letting your mind be known, and understanding what’s going on the minds of others, is a big part of communication.

Learning to communicate is a gradual process, integral to your personal development. It’s more than just saying what you think, it’s thinking about what you and others say.

Typically, how you communicate and comprehend will mature as you do. With experience, you learn to disregard stereotypes and tailor your responses to the specificity of the person, place or situation so as to get along better with others.

At least part of what is called wisdom has to do with learning to get along effectively enough to inspire and promote cooperation with others. If there is any one thing which has allowed human beings to thrive on Planet Earth, it probably is none other than cooperation.

Earlier today, Jupiter started a nearly 13-month journey through Virgo. In correlation, your journey through life during Jupiter’s tenure in Virgo will probably expand upon interpersonal themes of communication and cooperation, especially as regards to moving beyond stereotypes (or not). Indications are that some awareness of astrology will enhance the ultimate outcome.

Jupiter, of course, does not exist in a vacuum any more than you do. Both you and Jupiter are part of the system we call solar. The solar system is a dynamic thing; everything is in motion. Hence, the context of Jupiter (and you) in symbolic relation to the rest of the solar system has changed since it last entered Virgo about 12 years ago.

Understanding the context of Jupiter in Virgo now, and for the year-plus to come, is the equivalent of understanding how to communicate and cooperate with others more effectively in your life. It means, at least in part, discarding stereotypes and focusing on specifics.

One system of stereotype employed by astrology is called “essential dignities.” It’s a useful system of rules that tell you about how planets and signs relate to each other. As with any system of rules, however, it’s important to see everything as part of a whole so as to know when to make an exception. On the whole, it appears that this particular traversal of Virgo by Jupiter will warrant an exception.

According to the system of essential dignities, Jupiter is considered to be relatively weak in Virgo. To use an astrological term, Jupiter is “in detriment” (or “in exile”) in Virgo because Virgo opposes Pisces. Pisces is one of two signs (along with Sagittarius) where Jupiter is said to rule (or be “in domicile”), and therefore strongly expresses with some degree of agency.

Think about how detrimental it would be if you were to be exiled far away from home, friends, community, citizenship, language, currency and everything else that’s familiar to you. That will give you a general idea of how the stereotypical image of Jupiter in Virgo works. 

This particular tour of Virgo, however, will feature a Jupiter in nearly constant communication with most of the rest of the solar system through angular relationships called aspects. The Sun, Venus and Mars will soon pass through Virgo to conjoin (share the same degree) with Jupiter.

Additionally, Saturn will make a relatively rare connection with Jupiter through what is called a square aspect (a separation of 90 degrees) from Sagittarius twice next year. Neptune and Chiron will oppose Jupiter from Pisces in what might be considered to be a continuous connection over the next year or so as well. By the same token, Pluto in Capricorn will be in what you could call a continuous trine (a separation of 120 degrees) with Jupiter for months to come.

Finally, Mercury (already in its Virgo domicile now) will return to Virgo in August of 2016 to conjoin with Jupiter twice (once in direct motion, and once in retrograde). After that, Jupiter will enter Libra in September of next year.

In sum, Jupiter’s time in Virgo will not resemble an exile at all. Rather, it will represent a metaphorical exception to one of the stereotypical rules of astrology. The sheer quantity and quality of connections Jupiter will make while in Virgo will, in essence, overcome those rules.

Based on the idea that what goes on in the skies above correlates with what is going on here on Earth below, the next 12 months or so might be similarly exceptional for you and your interpersonal relationships. In order to realize exceptional outcomes, however, you will need to behave in exceptional ways.

You will need to move beyond the perception of racial, gender and political stereotypes. You will have learn how to extend the boundaries in which community have been contained. You will be required to inspire and promote cooperation. In fact, all of us will.

For we have reached a point in our own personal and collective development when it is no longer appropriate to be separated by community any more than it has ever been feasible to be separate from community. It’s time make an evolutionary leap beyond community to system.

It’s time to become one with the ecosystem of Earth and the solar system of the skies. The time for exile is over. It’s time to come home again. It will admittedly be a long road home, but you can at least know the appropriate direction if you let the example of Jupiter in Virgo show you the way to get started.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

A time-honored strategy sometimes utilized in football and some other sports is often called a shift. It happens when the players (often on both teams at once) line up in a particular formation, then shift to another formation just before the play begins. It is an attempt to disrupt the opposition in order to gain an advantage.

Shifts work for two reasons. First, each formation has weaknesses as well as strengths. Hence, based on what they expect to encounter, teams make plans in advance. Shifting from one formation to another compels the opposition to adjust their plans.

The other reason to use shifts has to do with time. The opposing team usually has precious little time to make an appropriate adjustment of its own in response to a shift, increasing the possibility of being caught off guard mentally or off balance physically.

Over the next handful of days, the sky will demonstrate a shift of sorts. It will be a more pronounced and comprehensive shift than is usual for such a short period of time. You need not fear it. The objects involved are not opponents seeking to defeat you. They are simply large chunks of matter moving in their respective orbits as they always do, but shifting to a different formation in relation to each other.

It’s a matter of information and its interpretation. The solar system is just that — a system. In any system one part or combination of parts will constitute information. That information, if properly interpreted as part of a greater whole, will provide data about any other part of the system (including you) and the system as a whole. Astrology is simply a method of interpretation that makes correlations with your life on Earth.

Those correlations in turn can be combined with other forms of information you use every day in order to evaluate your options and make decisions. Right now, a straightforward correlation would indicate that you should consider at least initiating some shifts of your own either to gain an advantage or to adjust appropriately to shifts going on around you, beginning this weekend. As a matter of fact, it appears as though there will be several shifts to be initiated (at least) between now and Tuesday.

It all begins with Mercury leaving Leo behind and entering Virgo tomorrow shortly before 3:15 pm EDT (19:14:43 UTC). Among other things, Mercury corresponds with your mind and its means of communicating. Such earthly correlations with Mercury tend to function very well while Mercury is in Virgo. Hence, you might want to shift into a more communicative and thoughtful way of doing things, at least until Mercury leaves Virgo for Libra on Aug. 27.

The shifts continue over the weekend. Overnight between tomorrow and Saturday (for most of you), the Moon moves from Taurus (where it is today) and into Gemini. Later on Saturday (shortly after 7:32 pm EDT, or 23:32:09 UTC) Mars leaves Cancer behind to enter Leo.

The Moon changes signs every two or three days. Hence, lunar shifts do not usually correlate with major changes. It’s more of a rhythm thing, like shifting your weight to the appropriate foot at the right time.

Gemini is the other sign (along with Virgo) where Mercury is strong. By implication then, simply knowing about Mercury entering Virgo tomorrow can help you get off on the right foot with the Moon (and its correlation with your emotional side, among other things). You can start your weekend knowing that some of what you will want to communicate will probably involve how you feel as well as what you think.

Mars, on the other hand, will remain in Leo until Sept. 24 (or Sept. 25, depending on your time zone). As a result, you will have more time to make or initiate a shift in your life that correlates appropriately with how Mars (forms of energy and the issues of desire, among other things) expresses in your life. By the same token, however, the consequences of shifting (or not) will last longer.

Additionally, you might expect earthly manifestations of Mars in Leo to express more strongly and in a more straightforward manner than in Cancer. Assuming that expectation is accurate, your implied role (at first, anyway) will be to govern your personal desires and energies more thoughtfully by integrating your awareness of Mercury’s shift to Virgo.

Finally, on Tuesday, Jupiter shifts from Leo into Virgo where it will wander around for about a year, amplifying the situation represented by the shift of Mars. In other words, Jupiter’s shift will probably correspond with more time to adjust, offset by a longer process of change and more enduring consequences.

As a planet, Jupiter also correlates with more complex and interactive subject matter than the ‘personal planets’ (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars). Therefore, this weekend will also be an appropriate time to anticipate and make plans regarding where you fit in with others.

Just as with the Moon in relation to Mercury (and Mercury in relation to Mars), however, you can make a good start adjusting to Jupiter’s impending new tenure by realizing that all you do this weekend will set a pattern. This pattern will either get you off on the right foot with Jupiter in Virgo, or require you to make further adjustments over the next 12 months or so.

Hence, for this weekend at least, think. Think and communicate both your thoughts and your emotions equally, and while doing so be aware. Be aware of the energetics of your communication and whether those unspoken energetic signals coordinate with your desires. Proceed with a sure and certain knowledge that your every act will also be amplified in your future.

Offered In Service  

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.
— John Muir

Should your life be somewhere between intense and overwhelming right now, it’s almost certainly not just you. If you also have a paradoxical sense of at least one shoe taking forever to drop, you are probably not the only one. Whether unresolved tension or unrelieved intensity is preponderate for you at this time, indications are that you are not alone.

It’s easy to feel alone when you have been too darn busy to stay in touch. Alternatively, you might feel isolated because you have retreated from engagement in order to take rest or nourishment. Either way, it’s tempting to get down on yourself.

Rather than beating yourself up, however, take a moment to at least imagine the possibility that many (or even most of us) are faced with the same temptation.

Were it true that many people (if not most everybody) you know have been similarly unable to cover all their bases recently, you would know what to do. Your own experience would dictate that you show the same patience, compassion and tolerance you hope to receive. It would also assuage your concerns to hear assurances that things will get better one way or another, as opposed to being the recipient of pressure to do more than you can manage.

Interestingly, there is one motif unifying this moment in astrology that symbolically supports the notion that many of us really are in the same tippy canoe. It’s the same tableau that implies an impending release or relief. It’s a pattern currently being expressed by Mercury, Jupiter and retrograde Venus in Leo, along with Mars in Cancer and Saturn in Scorpio. All are moving through the final few (or ‘anarectic’) degrees of their respective signs this week.

The anaretic part of any sign represents intensity. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. The energetic demands of the Sun, Moon or one of the planets so positioned can often be redeeming. However, with fully half of the sign rulers occupying the latter degrees of their respective signs at the same time, indications are that a sense of both extremity and some sort of strain are probably widespread.

By the same token, any experience concurrently shared by many (no matter how challenging) enhances the possibility of equally widespread understanding. In order for informed compassion to carry the day though, you have to break the icy grip of isolation and reach out to reassure others with words you long to hear and gestures you would be relieved to receive. 

Reassurance is the upside of a planet moving through the anaretic degrees in direct motion. For any such object is by definition on the cusp of entering a new sign. When you consider the palpable refreshment that often accompanies just one planetary ingress, you can easily imagine how several such changes in a short period of time might well correspond to a significant amount of solace.

Indeed, such changes are not long in coming. By this time next week the earthly archetypes of no less than three planets will be manifesting from entirely new fields of expression.

Mercury will move first, entering Virgo on Friday to ease your mind. Mars will follow on Saturday, shifting into Leo to quicken your consciousness and enliven you body. Then, Jupiter will end more than a year in energetic Leo next Tuesday to begin a trek equally as long through the modulated frequency of Virgo.

Finally, Saturn will complete nearly a year of transitioning from one sign to another next month by settling into Sagittarius for the long run of two years more.

If you can only manage to grasp one message from the astrology this week, it would be the proverbial advice that “this too will pass.” Nonetheless, it would be helpful if you could venture a step or two further.

Whenever others express regret, it would soothe so much to simply reply with reassurance. Similarly, requite remorse with forgiveness, and healing will be the result. Responding with compassion for those who are contrite will likewise function to literally change the world for the people in question. 

Most of all, reach out to at least one of those who have withdrawn. Contact those unable or unwilling to either express their bewilderment or ask for pardon; let them know it’s not just them, but all of us on the cusp of changes that promise to be as liberating as the world is now weighty. It’s a promise that all of us (not just you) can act to make real.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

The quality of transitional times may be difficult to discern while you are actually in them. For example, when one day transitions to the next at midnight it’s often dark and you are most likely asleep. Something similar might be said to apply for any transitions from one era of your life to another.

It’s hard to see you hooking up with a new epoch up until you ‘wake up’ to hindsight.

Astrology, however, can provide perspective on both the present and the future, as well as the past. That’s how it was, is and will be possible to see 2015 as a transitional year.

This is the year the long continuum of seven square aspects from Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn (which started in 2012) began to end. Even now you are probably seeing something of another side to where you were before 2012.

Additionally, Saturn is taking up most of 2015 just to settle into Sagittarius for the next couple years. Finally, as 2015 draws to a close, the lunar nodes (two perpetually opposing points on the zodiac where eclipses take place) will transition from the Aries-Libra axis to the Virgo-Pisces axis.

Venus (retrograde since last weekend) returns to Leo tomorrow shortly after 11:27 am EDT (15:27:21 UTC). When that happens, two other series of transitional hook-ups that are unique and thus definitive to 2015 (both of which started earlier this year) will resume. In this case, the hooking up will translate quite literally through a series of conjunctions.

Conjunction aspects are when two objects hook up in space (as well as in time) to share the same degree of the same sign on the zodiac, while concurrently sharing the same degree of longitude in the sky. The prototype through which all conjunctions are interpreted takes place monthly when the luminaries (Sun and Moon) briefly merge for what we call a New Moon.

Just as with any New Moon, every conjunction is the beginning of a new cycle. For the Sun and Moon, that cycle lasts about a month, and the transition but a day. The brevity, frequency and regularity of a luminary conjunction often leads us to take that particular liminal moment for granted, unless you live in an area where more pronounced ocean tides, brought about by the combined gravity of the conjoined Sun and Moon, require you to take due notice.

Of course, anytime the Sun and Moon conjoin in the vicinity of a lunar node to precipitate a solar eclipse, the nature of the New Moon is emphasized. That’s how events correlating with eclipses will often serve some sort of significant notice on you, whether you live near the ocean or not.

Conjunctions between planets have another way to get your attention: through repetition. When two celestial objects conjoin but once to begin a new cycle between them, corresponding events can often fly under your proverbial radar until 20/20 hindsight brings you to realize their significance.

However, if one or both of the two planets in question goes into retrograde after the first hook-up, the conjunction can be repeated twice or more. That repetition serves to extend the hooking up over time, essentially emphasizing the transition. Corresponding events often follow suit according to the nature of the planets involved.

Every Venus retrograde features a single conjunction from the Sun. That’s because it is Venus passing between Earth and the Sun (essentially lapping us from the inside lane) that precipitates the illusion Venus is going backwards in the first place.

The last time Venus retrograded back into Leo from early Virgo (in the Summer of 2007) also featured a single conjunction from Mercury. In retrospect therefore, the quality (Venus) of your thinking (Mercury) very well may have undergone a subtle transition in 2007 that you you were not conscious of (Sun) at the time.

This Venus retrograde of 2015, however, is doubling down to precipitate three conjunctions with both Mars and Jupiter. Corresponding events are therefore almost certain to get your attention, because they will be either repeated or otherwise drawn out over time. What’s more, the nature of transitions being made in 2015 are almost sure to be reflected by the nature of Mars and Jupiter in combination with Venus.

You don’t have to know anything about astrology to ascertain what Venus and Mars combine to mean. It’s about relationships of the one-to-one variety. It’s about hooking up to form a couple and themes related to the dynamic between complementary things.

Since the first conjunction of Venus and Mars in early Aries on Feb. 22, we have seen a theme of transition in one-to-one relationships manifest already. Just look to the same-sex marriage decision rendered by the U.S. Supreme court.

With two more Venus-Mars conjunctions yet to come in 2015, the idea for you is to realize the transitions are not over. Hence, no matter how compelling any coupling you have made so far this year, stay flexible. Realize that you are implicitly in a process that will take you from one era of your life to a new epoch of one-to-one relationships. Understand that the process will not even begin to complete until 2015 is almost over.

Venus had its first of three conjunctions with expansive Jupiter more recently — on July 1 in Leo. Given the amplifying nature of Jupiter and the values associated with Venus, the implication is that the importance of all hookups being made at this time will be emphasized.

Once again, however, the repetition of two more Venus-Jupiter conjunctions later this year represents more than just an accentuation of the theme. It also indicates a timeframe (also not concluding until late this year) within which you should allow a process of development to continue to its natural conclusion.

Venus will remain in Leo until Oct. 8. Given that Leo is ruled by the Sun (an emblem of consciousness), your own emphasis until then is to remain aware of the bigger picture and longer process — rather than being swept up in hooking up at the cost of all else.

Also, neither Mars nor Jupiter will receive their last conjunction from Venus until weeks after Venus returns to Virgo a second time. Understanding that means that it will be essential for you to practice patience along with awareness.

Hence, give yourself the space and time to see this year through before you act to force anything having to do with relationships. By doing so, you will be more likely to ‘wake up’ in 2016 with the realization that you not only more clearly discerned the quality of what looks to be one of the most important transitional times in your life, you also more actively contributed to define it.

Offered In Service       

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thank goodness you are still here. July has been a long month thus far. You have been witness to a lot. Hopefully, what you have endeavored and endured has also been witnessed, and with compassion.

Although witnessing does not exert the same level of energy as it does to take direct action, it still in fact takes energy, intention and focus.

To attest to what you have seen (as in the reader comments we cherish here), which becomes a form of participation, likewise requires some effort — effort appreciated by the recipient, whether they take time to acknowledge it or not.

On some level, all of you know that what you have served to witness is remembered somehow. In some way we all get the hint that nothing is forgotten.

That’s how it’s important to act as if your every deed makes a difference, because it does. Perhaps even more important, however, is to note (and testify to) the acts of others as we would want ourselves to be noted and remembered.

For in a world where so much seems to go wrong so often, it’s vital to recognize that most people are just like you. It’s important to proceed with the certainty that nearly all of us are trying to do the right thing in the right way to achieve the best outcome for everybody involved.

Of course, it’s a learning process. Each of us can almost certainly think of how we might have done better with a little more work, and a little less sleep. Yet, it does you no good to get wrapped up in ‘if only’. What you should have, could have or would have done after the fact is not worth your regret, it is only worth learning from.

In order to apply what you learned so as to to do better, it helps to witness and integrate the teachings of those who serve as a better example. People such as Judith Gayle, who counseled us here on Planet Waves this last weekend to go beyond either demonizing or idealizing those we witness. Or Christine Louise Dietrich, who on the same day patiently taught Planet Waves readers how devotion to another mortal is best offered to the divine within that being (and how devotion to the divine is best expressed towards the mortal beings through which the divine manifests and makes itself known).

Human beings have long intuited that another expression of the divine is in the motions in the skies above. Among those motions, the most easily witnessed and understood are those of the Sun and Moon. Hence, it is both instructive and indicative that July should end as it began: with a Full Moon.

The first Full Moon of July was in Capricorn, heavily aspected by the outer planets so as to imply that your part would be historical, somehow. Even if all you did was witness (and hence record into immortal record through the divine’s expression in you), that will have been enough. And you will have done well enough by posterity simply to still be here to testify.

Then, in the middle of July, the Sun and Moon converged in the same degree of Cancer for a New Moon. That New Moon was timed so as to appear as if the Sun and Moon came together to hold each other close while we were all holding our breath, as we waited to witness what word would come from both Pluto and the stressed financial centers of the world.

Now we approach July’s second Full Moon in Aquarius on Friday shortly before 6:43 am EDT (10:42:52 UTC). Over the next several days, as the Moon moves from the end of Sagittarius (when today started), through Capricorn and finally into Aquarius to oppose the Leo Sun, you might want to consider how best to observe the event.

Surely you will not want to trivialize all you have served to witness, and taken pains to learn, by chattering idly about what (or what does not) constitute a ‘blue’ Moon.

Rather, you might want to attest to the courage, erudition and strength of those who have faced every test and overcome every doubt, done so with a resolve to persist in and for all that their inner divinity can be said to be. Just like you have. Which is more than enough reason to reiterate to others (just as the last Full Moon of July is symbolically reiterating the first) the first sentence of this piece: thank goodness you are still here.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.